Over 175 people gathered virtually this year for Ranch Ehrlo’s annual general meeting (AGM). We gathered not only to meet, greet, and learn but also to celebrate all the hard work and dedication staff have shown to the agency and its participants during the pandemic.

The 55th annual AGM was opened with greetings from our board chair Greg Fieger. This will be Greg’s last meeting as board chair. He moved into the past-chair role and Dr. Louise Greenberg will take over as board chair. Natalie Huber joined us for her first AGM as CEO of Ranch Ehrlo.

“We have had some exciting announcements and changes at the agency in the last year,” stated Natalie.

She went on to tell attendees highlights from the year including the Downtowner’s Optimist Club officially gifting Wilson House to Ranch Ehrlo, the agency being named a Top Employer for the 10th consecutive year, and the family program’s new service for families dealing with substance misuse.

Natalie also discussed executive staff changes over the year. David Rivers became the new vice-president of clinical services, taking over for Dr. Bree Fiissel. Shelley Reddekopp also joined the agency as our new term vice-president of finance.

She concluded, “Thank you, as always, to the executive team for their continued excellent work. And a special thank you to all the employees and volunteers who time and time again, go above and beyond to provide excellent care to those we serve.”

Shelley Reddekopp provided a high-level overview of 2020-2021 financial statements. Overall, the 2020-2021 financial results for the agency were positive with the year-end results providing a net operating surplus of $2.6 million. To learn more about Ranch Ehrlo Society’s financial statement for the 2020/2021 year, you can read the full financial statements here.  

We were excited to announce guest speaker Janice Colquhoun. Janice is the executive director of Indigenous Services, Child and Family Programs, MSS. She is responsible for working with First Nations to develop legislation to enable these communities to assume control of their own child and family services. As Janice stated, “She loves her job,” and it was an honour to listen to her passion and wisdom for Indigenous Services. Thank you, Janice.

Greg took centre stage to extended a warm welcome to incoming chair Dr. Louise Greenberg and to David Hedlund, the incoming vice-chair. He also delivered a special thank you to Laurel Garven who rotated off the board after serving for nine years. In honour of Laurel’s tremendous contribution to the agency, we named a brand new home after her.

This year we have two new additions to the board, Hirsch Greenberg and Darren McKee. To learn more about them, please read their bios here.